Posts by Patrick Allen64

What am I even rambling about? It’s about the thing absolutely nobody thinks about when they turn on the tap—the fallout from drinking water saturated with inorganic minerals (which are always present) and all the other junk floating in there! A respected colleague of mine—who actually worked on certain filtration systems—pointed out that while people think it's being cleaned, they've got it all wrong. Out of 600 million cubic feet, less than 4% is actually properly treated; the rest just ends up in the municipal supply. Did you know that along the entire coast, there's only one decent municipal water purifier—located in San Francisco—while the rest are completely inadequate? Most of them only use primary treatment, and even then, they were designed for a fraction of the volume we produce today. But let me cut to the chase: building modern sewage and wastewater treatment plants to meet current needs is insanely expensive. Given the current economic climate, even Germany, the US, or most Western nations couldn't afford it right now, let alone us—so, naturally, they take the path of least resistance. Which means, once again, we pay the price. They rely on chlorination to kill bacteria (which creates trihalomethanes—toxic byproducts—and isn't even effective enough anymore) or adding aluminum sulfate for clarity (which causes anemia and is extremely toxic). It’s cheap, and people don't get it. One last detail: the "quality tests" used to check if water is safe? They are intentionally inadequate. It's the old "if you don't look for it, you won't find it" tactic. They run analyses for elements or compounds that they already know are within legal limits, but for the stuff they know is over the line, they simply don't test for it or report it. For instance, I managed to get my hands on a private report from two years ago regarding the water supply for San Francisco from the Zvir reservoir. The published data showed everything was perfectly fine—exactly what they wanted everyone to see. But the actual analysis for compounds that exceeded safety limits, like lead, showed levels up to 30 times higher than allowed! And yet, you won't find that reported anywhere. Why? Maybe I've written long posts before that bored someone or helped someone else, but to me, this is crystal clear. I honestly have nothing left to say. If you choose to trust the Department of Health—who are paid by the government, mind you—then go ahead and keep poisoning yourself. People in Europe realized this delusion a long time ago.

Here’s another little bit of technical reality for those claiming there are zero bacteria or parasites in the water just because of chlorination. Sure, chlorine has been used as a disinfectant since the early 1900s—long before we actually understood all the side effects and nasty byproducts—and yes, it does kill bacteria. But people conveniently skip over the most important part—whether they're ignorant or just looking the other way. Some bacteria have developed a massive resistance to chlorine now; take *E. coli*, for example. On top of that, thanks to the incredibly rough materials—all those various metals—used to make water pipes over the last century, bacteria, viruses, and parasites create biofilms. They build up these clusters in the tiny pits and imperfections of the pipe surfaces. Because they're tucked away like that, they're shielded from the main flow of the water, creating actual little ecosystems inside the lines. Eventually, chunks of that biomass break off the walls and end up right in your tap!! "Just Google it." Don't let them pull the wool over your eyes—not that our institutions haven't been doing that for years anyway!!

Listen, folks—pardon the long-windedness here, but I absolutely cannot sit idly by while I read all this nonsense being peddled on here (with a few exceptions, obviously). All these claims about water quality—specifically regarding the municipal supply—are not just baseless, they are flat-out wrong. People love to cite whatever sensationalist garbage hits the news cycle, but that’s exactly the point... who actually controls the media? The government? Of course they aren't going to broadcast the truth if it makes them look bad—their capacity for manipulation is staggering. I spent years working for an environmental protection firm, handling everything from hazardous waste management to maintaining industrial and public sector water purification systems. What I saw firsthand was nothing short of appalling. In America, we barely even touch our wastewater; maybe 4% of it gets properly treated. When you consider we generate roughly 600 million cubic meters of wastewater annually... well, there's more than enough left over for us to drink. Ever since I started at that company, my kid hasn't touched a single drop of tap water. I actually agree with a specialist who once joked that we should patent the "method" of drinking pure, healthy water without actually treating any of the wastewater first. Our infrastructure is ancient—some of these pipes are a century old! We're talking corroded metal, asbestos-cement, etc.—so don't come to me with that laughable argument that purification is "unnecessary" or "too expensive." I'm not some shill for a filtration company, but stop repeating things you only half-understand. If you want the truth, take a sample of your actual tap water to a lab. Don't tell them where it came from; just let them test it. You'll be shocked. While the legal limit for dissolved solids might be 50 mg/L, my sample from a Cave location hit 155 mg/L, and out on Manhattan, it was over 500. Furthermore, there are no "beneficial minerals" in that water. Those are inorganic minerals that the human body can't even absorb or process—it's like eating dirt and expecting to feel great. Only plants have the ability through photosynthesis to convert those useless, sometimes harmful inorganic minerals into organic ones that humans can actually use. That 155 ppm figure mostly refers to limescale. Think about why people buy distilled water to protect their irons—who are they actually protecting? Think about what happens to our water heaters, dishwashers, and even the residue on our dishes. That same stuff builds up in our arteries and veins, causing damage—calcification, hardening, atherosclerosis. That’s why cholesterol builds up; calcium and magnesium damage the vessel walls, creating a landing strip for fats to settle and form plaques that would otherwise just flow through. Then there's the bigger picture: dialysis, chemotherapy... the reality is that cancer rates are skyrocketing here in the US, especially in regions like San Francisco, while mortality rates for cancer are actually dropping elsewhere. And get this: if the liars at the CDC decide to "test" water quality but don't want to release the real data, they simply run tests on the specific connection points they know are within limits, rather than testing the spots everyone knows are contaminated. It’s blatant manipulation of the public. In total, hundreds of contaminants have been identified in water supplies, yet we only track about ten of them. I know this is a wall of text, but I hope this provides some actual substance for those who think they're experts, and for anyone else looking for the real story. There are plenty more details and arguments proving that public utilities are essentially poisoning us, but that would require far too much time and space.